“Hey!” A loud bang resonated through the air, making my ears ring. “Hey. Wake up.”

I raised my head blearily and looked across the cell. There was a police officer standing just outside the door, and he swung the nightstick against the bars again as if we weren't waking up fast enough.

“What is it?” Chelsea asked from behind me. “What's going on?”

The officer, a portly man in his forties, rested his hand on his belt and frowned at us. “Uh. Well.” He scratched his head with the baton. “You're free to go.”

I thought he was pranking us at first, but lo and behold, the man started unlocking our cell. Chelsea and I scrambled to our feet but kept our distance, distrustful of this sudden and highly unlikely clemency.

“What do you mean we're free to go?” I asked. “That can't be possible.”

“Welcome to Florida,” he said dryly, swinging the door open. “Anything is possible. Most of the time that's not a good thing, but today, you ladies have hit the jackpot.”

“But how?” Chelsea asked, face coated in bewilderment.

He shrugged. “The charges have been dropped. Your employer...” He looked between us, not sure who to address. “Well, anyway, Brinkman Tech found the money they thought you stole. Apparently it was all some big misunderstanding.”

A misunderstanding? Even if they had magically found the money Chelsea stole—which was impossible, given that the last time I saw the bag, it was on a seaplane headed to Andros Island—I didn't understand why they would drop the charges. Chelsea had still done the stealing. She hadn't tried to deny it. It should have been a cut-and-dried prosecution case.

“Are you going to come out or not?” the officer asked, brows creased in irritation. “I don't have all day, and I have actual problems to solve, involving actual criminals. We caught a guy driving a pickup truck full of gators and crystal meth down the South Dixie. Some of the gators got into the meth. It's a goddamn mess in there.”

I could believe it. Still, neither of us moved. Chelsea looked at me with wide, uncertain eyes, and then turned to the officer.

“Are you sure? I mean…I confessed and everything.”

The man sighed, his whole body sagging. He shook his head, clearly having one of the weirdest mornings of his life.

“Look, that’s real nice, but I can't charge you if you haven't committed a crime,” he said, his voice slow and drawling. “And you can't stay here if you haven't been charged. So, I'm going to ask you again, Miss—please leave.” Then, he grumbled something under his breath to the effect of, “I can't believe I have to do this.”

“I don't understand,” Chelsea murmured to me.

“Me neither.” I started guiding her toward the exit, a reassuring hand on her back. “But let's get the hell out of here.”

The officers in the precinct stared at us like we were exotic birds as we walked toward the front doors and the blanket of sunshine just beyond. Whatever had happened to lead to our release clearly wasn't normal, which I found disconcerting.

There had to be a catch. Was Donald O’Malley going to be waiting for us outside, ready to extend his blackmail to both the Redfield sisters? That would be evil, wouldn't it? Even for a jerk like him? I hadn't even worked out my revenge plan yet.

We stepped out of the front doors and I inhaled a deep breath of freedom. It was muggy and hot, and freedom smelled a lot like exhaust fumes and fryer oil. Still, it was a lot better than the inside of that cell.

It took a couple seconds of blinking before my eyes adjusted to the bright sunlight, but when they did, my jaw dropped in shock. Joel was standing at the base of the steps, staring up at me with a smile. It was so good to see him smiling. The image of his woeful expression when I had been dragged into the airport was seared into the backs of my eyelids, but now it seemed like that wouldn't be the last image of him I had to look back on.

“What's Dr. Lockhart doing here?” Chelsea whispered into my ear.

“I don't know.”

“Are you going to come say hello, or are you just going to stare at me all day?” Joel asked, raising a cheeky eyebrow.

I raced down the steps without another thought, jumping into his arms. “I'm so happy to see you!” I exclaimed. “How did you know where to find us?”

He chuckled, pulling me tightly against his chest. “I've got my ways.” He pulled back, examining my face as though he was looking for signs that I'd been hurt. “Are you okay? I'm sorry I couldn't get you out sooner.”

My heart thudded to a halt. “You did this?” I asked. “But...but how?”

He stroked my cheek with his thumb, sending a wave of heat pulsing between my thighs. God, I'd missed his face. I'd missed the sensual curve of his lips and the sparkle in his green eyes, and I'd missed the way those eyes looked at me, as though I was the only woman in the world.

“Let's just say I had a little chat with Donald O’Malley at Brinkman Tech,” said Joel. “As I found out, he's not a very nice guy. I did a little investigating after you and Chelsea were locked up, and I finally knew what it was you were running from. I presented my case to him, and he ended up dropping the charges.”

“That's incredible!”

Joel and I looked to the left, startled, to see Chelsea’s smiling face. We must have been way too involved in each other to notice her approach.

“I can't believe you would do that for us! Thank you so much, Dr. Lockhart.” Her smile was positively beatific. She turned to me and winked. “He's a keeper.”

“Thanks, Chels...” I leaned in toward her. “May we have a minute?”

Chelsea nodded and was already walking away when a woman's voice made us both perk up in shock.

“Girls! There you are! Your father couldn't find the meter, and oh, this heat!”

We both whirled around to see our mother and father huffing and puffing toward us, both wearing way too much clothing for the weather. It never got this hot in Seattle, and I guess in their rush to get to Florida, neither of them had thought to pack appropriately.

My mom, Betty, yanked Chelsea and I in for a big hug, squeezing us tight. “You both smell dreadful,” she said. “Ugh, I never thought I would be picking up my baby girls from a Miami police precinct. My book club is just not going to believe this when I tell them! Especially the part about the handsome doctor coming to the rescue. I hardly believe it myself!”

I was so happy to see my parents that I couldn't even find the energy to be embarrassed about my mother's yammering. Dad stood quietly at the sidelines, waiting his turn for a hug. When Mom released us, both Chelsea and I rushed over to embrace him.

“Should have never let you two leave home,” he said in that quiet, gruff voice of his. “Look what trouble you've gotten into. You crazy girls.” He sounded stern, but we could both see how his eyes twinkled with amusement. Coming to pick us up was probably the highlight of the old man's week. He loved a good adventure.

I was so caught up in seeing my parents that I forgot about Joel for a moment. Everything was happening so fast. We'd gone from being arrested, to losing all hope, to being free and reunited with our family. I was so happy and relieved I thought I could burst.

When I did turn to look back at Joel, he was already walking away. Panic clenched my throat and I tore myself free from my family to run over to him. I grabbed his arm, urging him to stop.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

He turned and smiled down at me, eyes crinkling at the corners. “I thought you'd want some time alone with your family.”

Butterflies fluttered in my stomach, and I had to stop myself from biting my lip.

“I guess you have to get back home, huh?” I asked. “You couldn't stay for a bit?”

“I could,” he said. “But you won't be here.”

“I won't?”

Christ, where was I headed off to now? I just wanted to rest!

He nodded toward my parents, who were still fawning over Chelsea. “Your parents want you to stay with them for a few days. You're all heading back to Seattle together on a flight this afternoon.”

“Oh.” I nodded, understanding dawning on me. I was being dismissed. “Right. Yeah, of course.” I looked down at my feet, shuffling the front of my sneaker against the pavement. “Well, thanks for—you know—everything you did. We'd be completely screwed if it weren't for you.”

“I know.” He reached towards my face, as though he was going to stroke my cheek, but stopped and let his hand drop. “It was really nice getting to know you, Megan.”

With that, Joel Lockhart walked out of my life. I yearned to run after him, to stop him and tell him how I felt, but I was torn. My family were calling me back, and I knew they needed me—now, more than ever. This whole situation had been a huge scare, for all of us.

I didn't blame him for wanting nothing to do with me. Even if he did know some of Chelsea's motivation for stealing the money, we'd still brought him a hell of a lot of trouble. Sure, we'd shared an amazing night together and clearly had a connection, but did that mean that we should try to make something work?

Well, I wanted to.

But how would it work? I lived in LA. He lived between the Bahamas and Miami.

I just wished that his last image of me wasn’t as a recently released criminal suspect, who hadn't showered in days and had spent much of the past twenty-four hours crying.

“Come on, Megan,” my mom called, waving me over to her. “We've got to get back to the airport. It would be very rude of us to miss the flight your handsome doctor was so generous to book for us.”

“What?” I walked back over to her. “Joel bought our tickets to Seattle?”

“And the ones from Seattle to here,” Mom said. “When we first got the call saying that our daughters had been arrested, we were devastated. Then, that doctor came out of nowhere and said he was taking care of it, and that he'd fly us over to pick you two up and bring you home. Well, we thought it was pretty crazy, but it wasn't like we were going to turn down a free trip to Miami for a few hours, was it Andrew?” Mom elbowed Dad in the side jokingly. “Not that we've seen anything much, except the airport and the highway. Hey, did you hear about the pickup truck they found with all those alligators on crystal meth?”